Client Nokia (Asia) - Nokia Nseries
Project iTalentstar - The Web 2.0 Ticket to Fame
Brief Nokia sought to create a campaign that appealed to young mobile-phone users in Southeast Asia and achieved this by launching an online talent competition that incorporated its Nseries N82 handsets.
Project iTalentstar - The Web 2.0 Ticket to Fame
Brief Nokia sought to create a campaign that appealed to young mobile-phone users in Southeast Asia and achieved this by launching an online talent competition that incorporated its Nseries N82 handsets.
People At MediaCom: Rahul Vasudev, director interaction; Budhi Firmansyah, senior planner. At Interactive Hub: Keith Cheong, director; Kenniess Wong, managing director; Melissa Tay. At Global One Media: Kenny Goh, Adrian and Howie Yan. Freelancers: Sam Nai, producer
Duration December 7, 2007 - May 13, 2008
Background Nokia looked to leverage its popularity in Southeast Asia by hosting a web-based video talent show.
Nokia has long been a strong brand in the region and with Asian youth and it wanted to further its reputation as a reliable and useful tool. Nokia developed iTaletnstar to showcase the ability of the Nokia Nseries N82 phone a to be both a creative tool and a communication medium for its target youth audience.
Aim To encourage creative and energetic Southeast Asian youths to participate in the contest and inspire them to use their Nokia handsets to their fullest capabilities. Nokia focused on its N82 handset to show consumers that mobile phones can be a medium with which to express themselves and share their stories and used this as the basis of iTalentstar.
Execution Nokia wanted to reach out to as many young audience members as possible to both garner excitement and draw talent, so it partnered with popular social networking site Friendster as its competition platform.
Nokia began by issuing a digital, talent search across the region. Young Asians were asked to create user-generated content to display their best skills, either through photographs, videos or blogs. To ensure the quality and creativity of the submissions, the brand offered online tutorials of how to best use the handsets to take pictures, edit films and share their content. Nokia encouraged audiences to upload user-generated content onto the contest’s Friendster page to exhibit their talent to their peers across the region and have a chance at fame.
Following the submissions, Nokia chose the top two contestants from its four target markets - Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore - and gave them Nokia N82 handsets to use to in the duration of the contest in the regional finals.
The next phase of the contest included five elimination rounds in which contestants were asked to create videos according to a series of challenges. The final challengers to move through the elimination rounds - which were voted on by their peers in each of their countries - competed for the title of Asian iTalentStar 2008.
Throughout the campaign, iTalentstar was promoted across Friendster, as well as through other local media partners in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore.
Nokia further generated excitement by hosting live events in these four markets and prompted a viral campaign across youth blogs and video-sharing sites such as YouTube. Youth-focused print publications also picked up on iTalentstar’s buzz, giving the contest ink space throughout the region.
Results More than 300 videos were submitted for judging, and 940,000 unique visitors viewed the campaign’s site, resulting in more than 2.7 million page views. More than 60,000 visitors voted for their favourite talents and additional fans generated 500 viral videos of iTalentstar.
Overall, the campaign earned more than SG$700,000 (US$475,000) worth of media value, plus free and word-of-mouth promotions.
Click here to launch the website
